|
By
WADE GOSSETT
Doth Mel Gibson a good
Hamlet make? That is the question!
When it was announced back in the late 1980s that
the star of "Mad Max" and "Lethal Weapon" was
going to try on this most coveted of acting parts,
everybody has been wondering whether he could pull
it off. Knowing what we know now about Gibson's
rather fervent religious -- and admittedly
unorthodox -- convictions as disseminated in his
controversial "The Passion of the Christ" one may
indeed wonder who Gibson really is: Action star,
religious militant or serious thespian?
I can't answer any of those questions, but I can
tell you that in this 1990 version of
Shakespeare's most celebrated play Gibson is more than merely good, he
is superb. His performance is
energetic, sensitive and intelligent. While his
"Hamlet" is a fresh and contemporary rendition,
none of the passion of the drama was lost. And his
action movie background comes in useful, helping
him create a Hamlet who may be conflicted but is
no milquetoast.
For those unfamiliar with the play, Hamlet was the
royal Prince of medieval Denmark. When the king,
his father, dies and his mother (an equally
marvelous Glenn Close) marries the king's
brother, Hamlet becomes depressed. Then the late
king's ghost appears (or does it?) and reveals to Hamlet that he
was murdered, by none other than his own brother.
Hamlet's duty is to avenge his father's death; if
only he was sure the ghost was real. If only he
could be sure about consequences of his actions.
Hamlet has frequently been called "the first
modern man." And indeed, Hamlet's thoughtfulness,
and his philosophical preoccupations are quite
modern.
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, misguided purists
have attacked the film arguing that editing
decisions, involving the rearranging and removal
of some scenes, have diminished the Bard's magnum
opus. That's silly, since not only Elizabethan
directors often cut bits and pieces -- with the
approval of the playwright -- but there's just no
way to reproduce the standards of Elizabethan
theater without creating something silly and
foreign to our contemporary eyes (how would you
have liked Ophelia played by a man?).
The film is introduced by Gibson, and special
features include two documentaries, "Hamlet: An
Actor's Journey," and a making-of featurette, "Mel
Gibson: To Be or Not to Be." But as they say, the
play's the thing. |
